Suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel spoke with reporters on Tallahassee June 19 at the end of his two-day hearing

Politics made Scott Israel sheriff of Broward County. Politics influenced Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to suspend him over his agency’s response to two mass shootings. And politics will dictate whether the Florida Senate removes Israel from office or he wins re-election next year.

This is the reality of having an elected sheriff.

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It’s a dangerous mixture of law enforcement and politics, what former Sheriff Ron Cochran called a "political action committee with badges and guns.” That makes it perversely fitting that Israel’s fate will be decided by 40 senators, partisan politicians who can have their own political action committees.

As the county’s population nears the 2 million mark, Broward is the largest police jurisdiction in Florida run by a political figure and one of the largest in the U.S. It’s a modern agency staffed by law enforcement professionals and a patronage mill at the same time, and has been that way for a long time.

Through the years, every time BSO is rocked by scandal or major controversy, there’s talk of making the sheriff appointed and not elected. It never happens, and it’s naive to think an appointee, answerable to county commissioners, would not be influenced by politics.

Besides, the trend line is going the opposite way: Voters statewide last fall passed Amendment 10, which will force Miami-Dade to elect its sheriff starting in 2024, decades after the county eliminated the position in response to rampant corruption in the 1960s.

During two days of hearings last week in Tallahassee, Israel formally challenged his suspension as the governor’s lawyer made a less-than-compelling case for suspending him for incompetence and neglect of duty.

The state called no witnesses and relied on a broadly-worded law that makes sheriffs personally liable for the actions of their deputies, a standard few Florida sheriffs could attain (DeSantis earlier filed a “bill of particulars” as grounds for the suspension).

As a “conservator of the peace,” the state argued, Israel had a duty to prevent crime and failed. That’s an unrealistic standard that alone does not justify DeSantis’ decision to overturn a county-wide election in which 571,000 people voted for Israel.

Make no mistake: This newspaper editorially supported Israel’s suspension based largely on the critical findings of the public safety commission that spent seven months investigating the Parkland shooting.

The state’s lackluster case was presented to J. Dudley Goodlette, a Naples lawyer and former GOP legislator appointed by Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, to serve as a special master. Goodlette will make a non-binding recommendation to the Senate. A Senate vote is expected by fall.

By turns combative and contrite, the clearly well-coached Israel spent seven hours on the stand. He belatedly accepted full responsibility for the “actions and inactions” that contributed to the loss of 17 lives at Stoneman Douglas. Asked if he felt personally responsible, Israel said, “The only person responsible for the loss of lives is a horrific evil killer.”

For DeSantis, suspending Israel meant keeping a promise. As a candidate last year facing understandable pressure from Parkland parents, he said he would suspend Israel if he won.. At last week’s hearing, Israel’s lawyer, Benedict Kuehne, called it a “brutal political ploy, designed to fulfill a promise to the NRA.” But it was mostly about the families.

In his first State of the State speech to legislators in March, DeSantis amped up the pressure by asking “why any senator would want to thumb his nose at the Parkland families and to eject Sheriff (Gregory) Tony who is doing a great job.”

The remark was out of line — and premature.

In his first months as Israel’s acting replacement, Tony has faced criticism for a videotaped beating of a black teen by a white deputy in Tamarac (two officers were suspended). A pregnant inmate gave birth in a Broward jail cell after helplessly pleading for medical help for hours. Two inmates died in custody; a third mutilated himself. A first-degree murder suspect was mistakenly released from the jail that’s under the sheriff’s control.

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What happened at Parkland was horrific, as was a second mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where five died in 2017. But if Israel is responsible for the actions of every deputy, shouldn’t his replacement be held to the same standard?

Republicans hold a 23 to 17 Senate majority. They know if they reinstate Israel, the most powerful Democrat in Florida’s most Democratic county, it would be a humiliating defeat for the Republican governor. That makes reinstatement all but impossible, so what is playing out in Tallahassee is a political drama dressed up to look like due process.

Israel’s only real hope of regaining his job is to convince voters in 2020. The sheriff is elected, so that’s how it should be — for better or worse.